Number of Buttons for Dress Shirt by Size

How to count buttons for a dress shirt

A standard adult dress shirt carries 7–8 front buttons, 1 collar button and 2 cuff buttons (one per cuff). That comes to 10–11 buttons. With French cuffs there are no cuff buttons at all; cufflinks take their place. You'll also want 1–2 spare buttons on hand, which is why retail shirts arrive with a small spare bag stitched inside the hem. When buying in bulk, tailors and ateliers usually pad the order by 10% to absorb losses, defective pieces and the occasional design change. Say you're running 10 shirts at 10 buttons each. That's 100 buttons, and the 10% bumps it to 110 buttons, on top of the 1–2 spares per shirt (10–20 total) packed with each one.

Applications

Tailoring and bespoke shirt-making. Fashion e-commerce inventory, where you need to know how many buttons to stock per SKU. Custom uniforms and corporate orders. Hobbyist sewing. And shirt customization or refurbishment, like replacing the odd button that went missing in the wash.

FAQ

Does a short-sleeve shirt need cuff buttons? No. There are no cuffs to button, so you drop those 2 and the total falls to 8–9 (7–8 front + 1 collar).

And a polo shirt? A polo has just 2–3 buttons on the placket, with nothing on the collar or cuffs. Count 2–3 per piece, plus 1 spare.

How do I know if it's French cuff? Look at the cuff: French cuffs have buttonholes on both sides, no button sewn on, and need cufflinks to close. When that's the case, count only 8 buttons (7–8 front + 1 collar).